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Combat Rules
Units of Time in Combat Combat time is based on a series of turns, individual actions taken by characters that take between 3 to 5 seconds, and rounds, which is the period of time it takes for every combatant to use up all of their Action Points.There is no set period of time for a round, as there could be any number of participants in the battle. Because of this, most effects and actions that take place over a longer period of time are measured in turns, not rounds. The GM may, however, decide something such as "The enemy forces will get within range in three rounds." Entering Combat When combat is definitely begun, the GM must decide the conditions for the start of battle using the following templates: * Combat Initiated Directly: one side or another definitely initiated a head-on engagement. In this case, the team that initiated combat goes first, followed by the opposing team in alternating turns until both sides have exhausted all their Action Points. * Ambush: One team attacked the other without their knowledge. In this case, the entire team gets to go first. The opposing team may only begin to use their AP to defend as each character learns they are being attacked. The GM could use Focus or Reflexes rolls as the characters are attacked to give them a chance to react. They may only begin to take their turns as usual once every flanking enemy has spent their AP. * Flank: 'One team has attacked the other from multiple angles. If one of these angles is head-on, that combat initiates as usual for Combat Initiated Directly. Other attacks coming from other angles count as a type of Ambush, but all the players may use their AP to react as soon as one member of their team becomes aware of the new angle of attack. They may only begin to take their turns as usual once every flanking enemy has spent their AP. Initiative Once the order has been established for the team, it is up to the team to decide their tactics for the round and what order they want to go in. The GM establishes the order for all NPC's, and then they take turns in that order using the primary order of teams established in the last step. In situations where the order of combat may not be so cut-and-dried, such as a shootout between two combatants waiting for each other to fire, the GM may choose to resolve the order of combat by a Reflexes roll. Action Points Action Points indicate how much a character can do over the course of a round. The number of Action Points a character has is decided at character creation. Most points will usually be used on the character's turn, but some may wish to reserve AP in order to react to opponents during combat and take other actions outside their turn. If you are out of AP, you won't be able to defend yourself. Combat Focus Combat Focus is the target your character is currently interacting with. A character may have only have one Combat Focus at any given time, and it must be within a 90 degree cone in front of them and within line of sight. If an enemy combatant enters this 90 degree cone, a character with AP available may take an action at any time upon that combatant by declaring them their Combat Focus. If a character attempts to ''switch combat focus, any opponent that has that character as Combat Focus already may use AP to perform a '''disengagement attack or action. If a character has Combat Focus on an opponent, any enemy approaching outside the 90 degree cone in front of that character gains a +1 Combat Advantage bonus... Drawing and Recovering Weapons When in combat, any character that has not drawn their weapon yet, or who has lost their weapon, needs to use 1 AP in order to draw or recover their weapon. Movement in Combat The distance a character can travel during a turn of combat is decided during character creation. Of a character's total Action Points, only two of them may be used to move. A character can spend one AP to use a Move action to move their total Walk distance without penalty to further actions, but if a character uses a Run action (also only worth one AP) then all rolls from that point on are at a -1 rank penalty. If a character is moving stealthily, they may use all their AP to move if they desire, but movement speed is reduced to one half. Characters moving slowly in combat while trying to attack gain a -1 penalty to attacks, -2 if moving at a regular speed, and -3 if they are running, unless the target is directly in the direction the character is moving. Melee Combat When a character attacks another in melee range, they should roll the appropriate attribute plus up to one applicable skill and one applicable Advantage, and minus all applicable Disadvantages. The opposing character may attempt to react (see Defending and Countering below), and if so must declare so now. If not, the roll remains undefended and the rank is as it was rolled. This rank indicates how much damage was dealt in the attack (see the section on Damage and Injury). If the character still has AP, they may make additional attacks or save them for other points in the round. Any points left unspent are lost. A standard attack costs 1 AP, but the character may expend two to make either a Strong Attack that has a -25% chance to hit but doubles the Damage Points achieved by the roll, or a Calculated Shot that halves the Damage points achieved in favor of a +25% chance to hit. Dual Wielding: A character attempting to use a melee weapon in each hand expends AP as usual for each attack they wish to make. However, the combatant will receive 5 ranks of the penalty Off-Hand Disadvantage, causing -25% to all attacks from the off hand, unless opposed by the Ambidexterity '''Advantage. Defending and Countering When attacked by an assailant the assailant has a chance of noticing (the GM may wish to offer a REF or FOC roll to allow a possibility for a reaction), the character may use AP in order to perform a Reaction. This allows the character to declare an Action to take immediately. The GM declares the roll for the character, and the result of the roll acts as a Resisting Roll. '''Defense: The character may spend 1 AP to hunker down and absorb the blow by blocking, raising a shield or weapon, or tightening their muscles. Evasion: The character may spend 1 AP to dodge the attack or 2 AP to dodge out of the way. In the latter case, the character may be displaced by up to ten feet in any direction as part of the evasion. Counter: '''The character may attempt to perform some kind of a counter-move, such as a grab, throw, joint lock, etc.. It costs 1 AP to dodge or block the attack and another 1 AP immediately to initiate the counter-move. Ranged Combat Characters engaging in ranged combat roll on the appropriate attribute (most likely DEX) plus up to one Skill and up to one Advantage, plus all applicable Disadvantages. The opponent may use AP to react, if the GM decides it possible (a REF or FOC roll may help give them the opportunity), at which point it becomes a Resisting Roll. Ranged combatants do not take turns as usual. Instead, they may take a shot as often as their weapon allows. If two or more characters fall on the same turn, including the character whose turn it would have been, the character with the highest Reflexes goes first. If more than one has the same Reflexes, have them roll to determine order. A character may make an '''Aimed Shot, which allows them to hold off on firing while they take aim. Every turn they wait to fire, they gain a +5% bonus to the shot, and may release it at any time they want. The shot bonus may not be raised above 50% in this way. Reloading Every weapon with ammunition will need to be reloaded from time to time. Such weapons will have a Reload Rate value. Once you have expended your ammunition, at any time after that many turns have passed, you must declare that you are taking the time to reload before you can use the weapon again. These weapons will also have a Reload AP '''value which indicates how many Action Points must be spent to reload the weapon. At any time once the Reload Rate counter has run out, you may declare taking a Reload Action, costing one point. At this point, the counter resets until you have spent the final needed Action Point and the final counter winds down for the last time. After this point, you may begin firing as usual. Special Ranged Combat Characters using ranged weapons may use several special attack patterns, if the weapon has the appropriate tags. '''Suppressing Fire x: If a weapon has a Suppressing Fire tag, the number after indicates how many bullets must be expended every time that character's turn comes around for them to be considered providing suppressing fire. During this time, anyone who enters the line of sight of anyone providing suppressing fire on the opposing team must allow each character doing it to roll an attack. These attacks may still be evaded or otherwise defended against using spare AP as long as the GM thinks the defense is feasible. A character entering Suppressing Fire sacrifices all their remaining AP for the round. Spread Fire x/y: 'This weapon hits everyone in a cone ''x ''wide and ''y deep, including teammates. The GM may distribute an equal amount of damage to every character in the cone, subtracting one rank to those in Long Range and adding one rank to those in Short Range. '''Auto Fire x: By expending x'' bullets on their turn, the attacker can stand their ground over the course of a full round (moving, if they wish, but at the appropriate penalty to the attack) and roll to attack every character that starts their turn in the Auto Firers line of sight. If a friendly character starts in the line of fire, they can make a LCK roll to Assist them in evasion. If the number of targets you fire on over the course of one round reaches half of ''x, you may no longer attack. This type of action costs 2 AP. Semi Auto Fire x'': ''The character may spend one AP to go into Semi Auto mode, firing a shot every x ''turns at no AP cost. '''Dual-Wielding:' ' ''A character attempting to use a melee weapon in each hand expends AP as usual for each attack they wish to make. However, the combatant will receive 5 ranks of the penalty '''Off-Hand Disadvantage, causing -25% to all attacks from the off hand, unless opposed by the Ambidexterity Advantage. One-handed ranged weapons do not cost extra AP to use, unlike Melee attacks. Thus, attacking with a ranged weapon in one hand and a ranged or melee in the other costs only 1 AP.